Sunday, July 25, 2010

I'm leaving Japan this afternoon. It's sad to go. I like this country. More than anywhere else in the world, Tokyo feels like home to me. Weird, huh?

I'd like to thank Ren Kuroda for putting up with me all this time. Thanks Ren! And thanks to Nishijima Roshi for the talks and the calligraphy. Thanks to everyone who joined this year's retreat at Tokei-in.

Thanks to Morishima-san ex-prez of Tsuburaya Productions for the pizza. Thanks to Norman England for Birdemic and I Drink Your Blood. Thanks to Takeshi Yagi for coming with me to Ultraman Festival 2010 and to Miki Mochizuki of Tsuburaya Productions for the tickets. Thanks to Ultraman designer Hiroshi Maruyama for a lovely drawing of Godzilla on my notebook for my next book.

Next up is the Great Sky Zen Sesshin in Minnesota. There is still time to sign up. So get it in gear, people. Sesshins like this do not come along often. Be there or be square!

56 comments:

But Japan--yeah, sounds cool. There's a scene in Warning From Space where two guys meet in a little cafe/sushi bar in a little wooden neighborhood with little wooden walkways between little wooden homes. Looked nice and cozy. A firetrap, but cozy. i wonder if it's still like that?

Great Sky does sound like a Sesshin. To bad I don't have the funds at this moment...maybe next year. Never having been to a sesshin, I'd like to do a three day before I jump into a seven.

I've finally become consistent with my Zazen, 30 min in the morning and 30 min at night (sometimes those thirty min turn into ten or twenty). I've sat everyday since the beginning of the year. It's now a habit. I've been thinking about doing a sesshin once a year along with my daily practice and continue that routine until I die.

Does that sound like a sufficient amount of practice? How much practice does one need to keep the automic nervous system balanced? Are there difference benefits for a person who sits one sesshin a year and a person that sits 20?

then again, it may be that quite a few of the homeless cannot actually make a rational choice about it. There are many sorts of malfunctions or damage to the brain which render one incapable of making "good" choices while appearing otherwise perfectly normal and intelligent. Read the neurologist Antonio Damasio's Descartes' Error for starters.

Since no one else has responded yet, I'll try to answer your questions. I think that you are the best judge of how much to sit, how many sesshins to do, etc. Let your practice deepen naturally, not forcing yourself too much, or getting really lazy either. I think your current plan sounds wise, except that you might want to be flexible about not planning out your entire life right now. I wouldn't worry about the benefits too much; just practice because it is the thing to do.

Or Mr. Wolf. That sounds like sufficient practice to me. Like the anon said, only you can really know. The most important practice is the stuff you do each day. Don't get ambitious about results. I say that from experience.

I'm not worried about results or gaining ideas, though I continue to see my mind churning them up. I've spent many years in the "seeking enlightenment" stage of Buddhism and have become quite disillusioned about having some trippy experience or even seeking to be calm for that matter. Anytime I have a feeling that I did not have a good Zazen is an indication of some kind of gaining idea. I even let the gaining idea of having no gaining idea go. I suppose wanting to know how much Zazen to do to keep the automic nervous system balanced is another sort of gaining idea. Sometimes it feels that practice is all about waking up to these sublte gaining ideas and go back to sitting Zazen for the sake of sitting Zazen itself or just doing what your doing for the sake of doing what your doing.

Zazen has become something I just do, like brushing my teeth or taking a dump each day. I become aware of my entanglments and focus back on good posture Somedays my mind is busy, somedays its calm. I just sit with what ever comes up without trying to stop the thoughts or getting caught up in them. I simply plan to just keep sitting like this day after day.

Lone Wolf, I don't know what your daily schedule is like or if it's possible, but if it is...you might try sitting the two periods together instead of one in am. and one in p.m. Maybe a 30 min round of zazen then a 5 min break. I usually do some kinhin or stretching exercise for the 5. Then follow that with a 25 minute zazen round. Experiment and see what works for you. Zazen 'bunched' together can sometimes be more effective than spread out. That's why there are zazenkai and sesshin. I'm not saying change what you're doing daily, but rather just try this as an alternate sometimes. Just a suggestion.

A Master saw a disciple who was very zealous in meditation. The Master said: "Virtuous one, what is your aim in practicing Zazen (meditation)? The disciple said: "My aim is to become a Buddha." The the Master picked up a tile and began to polish it on a stone in front of the hermitage. The disciple said: "What is the Master doing?" The Master said: "I am polishing this tile to make it a mirror." The disciple said: "How can you make a mirror by polishing a tile?" The Master replied: "How can you make a Buddha by practicing Zazen?"

That's good mr. mumbles, but I don't know why most people never quote the entire koan exchange. Here's the rest of the story;

"The teacher said: Granted, rubbing a tile will not make a mirror. How can a sitting meditation make a buddha?

Ma-tsu said: Then what would be right?

The teacher said: It's like the case of an ox pulling a cart. If the cart does not go, should you hit the cart or should you hit the ox?

Ma-tsu couldn't say anything.

The teacher went on to say: Do you think you are practicing sitting meditation or do you think you are practicing sitting buddhahood? If you are practicing sitting meditation, meditation is not sitting or lying. If you are practicing buddhahood, buddha is not a fixed form. In the midst of everything that is changing you should neither hold on nor push away. If you keep the buddha seated, this is murdering the buddha. If you cling to the form of sitting, this is not attaining its inner principle.

Ma-tsu heard this teaching as if he were drinking ambrosia.

He bowed and asked: How should I concentrate so as to merge with formless absorption so as to become utterly one with my meditation?

The teacher said: Your study of the mind ground is like planting seeds. My expounding of the essence of reality is like the moisture in the sky. Circumstances are good for you, so you will see the way. If the way is not color or form, how can I see it?

The reality eye of the mind ground can see the way. Formless absorption is also like this.

Ma-tsu kept asking. Is there becoming and decay, or not? One sees the way as becoming and decaying, compounding and scattering. That is not really seeing the way. Listen to my verse.

Mind ground contains various seeds. When there is moisture, all of them sprout. The flower absorption has no form. What decays and what becomes?

When Ma-tsu heard this his understanding opened. His heart and mind were clear. He served his teacher for ten years day by day going deeper into the matter."

"Almost 5 million California adults say they could use help with a mental or emotional problem, according to a survey released Wednesday by researchers at UCLA. About 1 million of them meet the criteria for "serious psychological distress."

California is full of whack-jobs like Mysterion. They should go their own way.

The survey was conducted among more than 44,000 adults as part of the 2005 California Health Interview Survey, administered through the UCLA Center for Health Policy Research. Since the survey was conducted, the recession probably has contributed to worsening mental health for even more people, said the lead author of the study, David Grant. Except for those sucking on the big State tit like mysterion.

Missouri has one of the worst public school systems, according to WalletPop. And in 2008, Missouri was also the state with the highest homicide rate according to the Associated Press.

5th Most-Depressed State: UtahDepression may be widespread in Utah as suicide has been called a “deadly taboo” and a major cause of death among young people there, according to the Deseret News. In fact, for years, Utah had one of the highest suicide rates among states nationwide, especially among men between the ages of 15 and 24.

6th Most-Depressed State: MichiganWith the still struggling - though possibly improving - U.S. auto market and other worries centered on Detroit, it may not be too surprising that Michigan has made the list of the 10 most depressed states in the country.

7th Most-Depressed State: ConnecticutThe gaming industry has taken a hit nationwide, and Connecticut’s Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods casinos are no different. What’s more, the aerospace industry is ailing and even hospitals are suffering as residents switch from for profit private insurers to government-run programs.

8th Most-Depressed State: WashingtonVisitors to the state of Washington know that July, August and September tend to be sunny, but for much of the rest of the year, weather can easily put a damper on one’s mood. Seattle is cloudy about 226 days out of the year, notes local network KOMO News.

9th Most-Depressed State: California - One might think that with generally beautiful southern California weather, the Golden State should be one of the least depressed. But just because Hollywood may be all smiles, doesn’t mean that California hasn’t felt the effects of the recession. (we paid off this house long before Bush wasn't elected).

California was one of the states hit hardest by real estate woes, with many home values cut in half and several of its cities topping the list of metro areas hardest hit by foreclosures, according to CNNMoney.com.

"Stocks surged in early trading today on news from the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta that the rate of suicide in the United States directly attributable to the foreclosure on victims homes reached an all time high in the first half of 2009." cynicism

and 1 of every 5 renters switched to a cheaper and less desired apartment. Going from up-scale to mid or mid-scale to low (or loe-scale to homeless).

"Indianapolis - A new report shows homelessness among children enrolled in Indiana public schools rose 26 percent over the two years ending in 2008-09 as the state felt the brunt of the economic downturn." source

California rewards those who are lazy. Yet I pity those fools because they don't understand work and idle away their days surfing the internet and looking for entertainment rather than being productive. Too many Californians lead meaningless lives.

In the 132 years between 1852 and 1984, the state of California built twelve prisons. In the eleven year period between 1985 and 1996, the state built sixteen more. By 2001 the Department of Corrections operated 33 prisons. Four house only women and one, the California Rehabilitation Center in Norco, incarcerates male and female offenders.

In 1977, California housed 19,600 inmates. A decade later in 1998, the inmate population had skyrocketed by an astronomical 811 percent to 159,000. By February 2000 that number had jumped to 161,000. California now runs the largest prison system in the Western world. It houses more prisoners than do the countries of France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Singapore combined. California has spent $5.2 billion on new prisons since 1977, yet it still has the most overcrowded system in the United States.

Currently, the state of California incarcerates one out of every eight prisoners in the United States. It is estimated that California will eventually need 30 to 50 new prisons to accommodate the influx of prisoners dictated by mandatory sentencing, stiffer enforcement of parole violations, and the three-strikes law.

Don't project your inadequacies on too many Californians. It may be that a few share your inadequacies but trying to project the inadequacies you possess elsewhere will not diminish the inadequacies you continue to have and display so proficiently here.